I noticed this too with my Asian friends. Getting low scores were simply unacceptable and it was required that they earn high marks. Quite a few of them didn't even have wealthy parents or come from top tier schools, they just busted their ass and their parents pushed them to excel. Not every single one of them was some math whiz but they worked crazy hard to do well. One thing I noticed besides crazy high expectations were really well grounded support groups and connections. This probably had the greatest impact.
The asian students stuck together, studied together, partied together, and the asian family unit was VERY supportive of their child. I see this form of bonding with a lot of Indian and Muslim students at my school as well. I see A TON of extremely bright black kids that fall through the cracks and into trouble because we don't have the sense of community, expectations or connects that other minorities display. Even the Africans over here are smart enough to have these bonds/connects which is how a lot of them are much more successful than us African Americans. My jewish friends have the hold community aspect ON LOCK. When a african american gets an education, he gets ridiculed, ostracized and ignored. There are often times where college educated black women are referred to as "that college bytch" in an envious tone of inflection. We can't build strong communities off of that nonsense.
We need very strong communal support, high expectations and standards for excellence if we ever want to succeed.
As African Americans, we have a very unique story to tell and its a shame that we won't get to share it due to low expectations in life.